The divided Alawite village of Kafr Ghajar, which stands athwart the Israeli-Syrian-Lebanese border triangle, was exhaustively searched by Israeli special forces Thursday, Jan 29, debkafile reports.The search focused on village school rooftops, from which spies and spotters are suspected of signaling Hizballah a description of the IDF convoy that was attacked the day before, killing two Israeli soldiers and injuring seven. That is how the Hizballah rocket crew on Mt. Dov is assumed to have singled out the IDF command convoy’s civilian pickup trucks from normal traffic.

The Netanyahu government is caught in the crossfire of two conflicts: Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh threatens to revive rocket fire on Sept. 25, the first day of the Jewish New Year Festival, unless the Gaza blockade is lifted by then. This would sorely embarrass Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, who defended the ceasefire by maintaining that Hamas would never shoot another rocket after enduring 50 days of relentless Israeli assaults. Netanyahu and Ya’alon have also launched the highly-charged process of choosing the next IDF chief of staff.

The US embassy guard in Tel Aviv was injured by a man with an axe and knife Tuesday, Nov. 20. The man was captured.
The US has returned three amphibious warships with 2,500 Marines aboard for standby off Israel’s shore in case US citizens need to be evacuated. They were sailing west of Gibraltar on their way back to Norfolk, Virginia, when they were turned around. debkafile: Washington evidently does not share the optimism in some Israeli quarters about an imminent ceasefire with Hamas but rather envisages a general conflagration.